Australian news and politics live: ASX wiped of $56 billion as Wall Street bloodbath hits Australia

The Australian share market plummeted in early trading, shedding more than $US35 billion ($A56 billion) after US markets tanked overnight on recession fears.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 was shed more than 100 points, or about 1.26 per cent, to 7862.2, after jumping off a cliff at the start of Tuesday’s session.

The All Ordinaries index was down about 1.4 per cent, or 114.5 points, to 8077.2 points.

More to come...

Squatters living in formerly vacant, water-damaged homes will be forcibly evicted as the clean-up begins from the flooding caused by Cyclone Alfred.

NSW Premier Chris Minns vowed to evict “overseas visitors, tourists, backpackers” taking advantage of condemned properties left empty after being included in a state buyback scheme for Lismore homes after the 2022 floods.

“We bought those houses so that we could keep communities safe ... and to have squatters move in off the back of that is completely unacceptable,” he told reporters on Tuesday.”

Read the full story here.

The sea of red ink that flooded the US markets overnight has spilled into today’s share trading.

Our main index - the All Ordinaries - has fallen 1.4 per cent in the first 20 minutes of trading, while financials have fallen even further, off 1.7 per cent.

Last night the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 890 points, or 2.1 per cent. The S&P 500 shed 2.7 per cent.

The Nasdaq Composite tracked for its worst day in more than two years, falling 4 per cent as investors dumped technology stocks.

Major Australian companies have cratered on the open including Qantas, which fell more than 8 per cent, Brickworks, down more than 9 per cent and Xero which fell more than 5 per cent.

Investors have piled into safe haven utility stocks including APA Group and Telstra.

Commonwealth Bank dropped 2.1 per cent, and Macquarie Group dropped 3.7 per cent.

Malcolm Turnbull has made his third anti-Donald Trump foray in 24-hours to press his argument about the president’s character, as Australia tries to clinch an exemption from US trade tariffs.

The ex-Liberal prime minister isn’t backing down and insists Australians shouldn’t be scared of offending Mr Trump’s “huge ego”, despite suggestions his criticism could jeopardise negotiations.

“Surely we should be free to speak the truth,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.

“Or are we going to muzzle ourselves for fear of offending Mr Trump?

“What every nation needs to do is to stand up to him, because otherwise it’s a slippery slope.”

Read Ellen Ransley’s coverage here.

Mr Dutton said he did not agree with Mr Turnbull’s recent comments but did not elaborate further.

“The most import thing to me is to get the job done, to keep the industry here, because we need steel manufacturing in our country for many reasons,” he told Sunrise.

“I think the prime minister needs to, frankly, roll his sleeves up.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to “pick up the phone” and call US President Donald Trump after a spat with former PM Malcolm Turnbull.

“The most important thing is for the prime minister to pick up the phone and speak with the president,” Mr Dutton told Sunrise.

“For the trade minister to speak to his counterpart and for the treasurer to speak to his counterpart and for the foreign minister to speak to her counterpart,” he continued.

“Those are the important discussions that are going on - or should be going on at the moment.

“Without those discussions, we won’t get an exemption from the trade tariff.

“The priority is to make sure the Government can get a deal here because it does have an impact on Australian jobs and Australian industry.”